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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM MARCH 11, 2013
The Conclave of Cardinals was deemed newsworthy enough by CBS and ABC to warrant an anchor's attendance. Both Scott Pelley and Diane Sawyer were in The Vatican on the eve of the beginning of the papal balloting, which was the Story of the Day. ABC even designated its newscast as a Special Edition. NBC not so much: not only did Brian Williams anchor from New York; he did not even choose Rome for his lead. Instead Andrea Mitchell kicked off the NBC newscast with Pyongyang's decision to abandon the armistice that ended the Korean War, an announcement that neither of the other two newscasts deemed worthy of even a mention in passing.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR MARCH 11, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
ABC & CBS EYE THE SISTINE CHAPEL AS KOREAN WAR REBOOTS The Conclave of Cardinals was deemed newsworthy enough by CBS and ABC to warrant an anchor's attendance. Both Scott Pelley and Diane Sawyer were in The Vatican on the eve of the beginning of the papal balloting, which was the Story of the Day. ABC even designated its newscast as a Special Edition. NBC not so much: not only did Brian Williams anchor from New York; he did not even choose Rome for his lead. Instead Andrea Mitchell kicked off the NBC newscast with Pyongyang's decision to abandon the armistice that ended the Korean War, an announcement that neither of the other two newscasts deemed worthy of even a mention in passing.
ABC's Josh Elliott and NBC's Anne Thompson both filed on the ecclesiastical horse race. Thompson likened the Eternal City to New Hampshire during primary season. Only two contenders appeared on both of their tipsheets: Marc Ouellet of Quebec, and Sean O'Malley, the Capuchin friar, who had already been profiled by ABC's David Wright and CBS' Jim Axelrod.
The visiting anchors each filed a pre-race one-on-one: ABC's Sawyer with an actual cardinal, Wilfrid Napier of South Africa, although she did not bother to mention his Christian name; CBS' Pelley with a non-contender, Father Tom Rosica, a Vatican flack. Meanwhile, ABC's Cecilia Vega (at the tail of the Elliott videostream) kept as far away as possible from serious journalism on the conclave, with a feature on the special-effects canisters that color the smoke signals that puff from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
There were four more side features about various aspects of the Catholic Church, from the scandalous (CBS' Mark Phillips on moneylaundering and political bribery by the Vatican bank) to the credulous (ABC's David Wright on the search for miracles by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints). NBC skipped any religious side features. The remaining two were filed by CBS: anchor Pelley with a nervous-looking trio of young American seminarians; and the unlucky Manuel Bojorquez, on the demographics of the church in this country.
Bojorquez was unlucky because he missed out on the junket. His trip, instead, took him all the way to the parish of Saint Athanasius in deepest southern Brooklyn, not in Rome. It turns out that all roads do not lead there, after all.
MONDAY’S MUSINGS Secretary Chuck Hagel, the new boss at the Pentagon, traveled to Kabul. CBS already had Charlie d'Agata based in Afghanistan so he filed a brief stand-up. NBC ran a brief video clip, without assigning a correspondent. As for ABC, Martha Raddatz voiced over four-year-old video of her own trip to Wardak Province from the Washington bureau.
You cannot say that NBC skipped world travel however. Actual travel was offered by Kerry Saunders from an Adelie penguin colony in Antarctica, complete with informative details about the value of glacial ice that turns pink and green. As for imaginary travel, Ann Curry gave a Making a Difference plug to John Butterill's Virtual Photo Walks project on Google Plus.
As for stories about personal health and medicine…
CBS followed up on the 60 Minutes expose of the New England Compounding pharmacy that anchor Scott Pelley publicized last Thursday and Friday. Jim Axelrod fingered another under-regulated compounder, run by Paul Franck in Florida, with a reminder of that string of Venezuelan polo ponies that keeled in Palm Beach over four years ago. Pelley (at the head of the Axelrod videostream), meanwhile, got Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to concede that the Food & Drug Administration lacked jurisdiction.
The in-house physicians at NBC and ABC -- Dr Nancy and Dr Rich -- both offered another plug for daily preventive aspirin.
The supersized soda story was also covered by a correspondent at both NBC and ABC. NBC's Rehema Ellis illustrated how serious the issue is with the factoid that obesity kills 5,000 annually in New York City alone. ABC's Gio Benitez illustrated how silly the controversy is by playing a clip of Jon Stewart making fun of it on The Daily Show. Despite this frivolity, ABC has covered the health consequences of drinking sugary soft drinks as heavily as NBC and CBS combined over the past three years -- and, before that, remember Diane Sawyer's epic on Mountain Dew mouth in Appalachia.
ABC's Josh Elliott and NBC's Anne Thompson both filed on the ecclesiastical horse race. Thompson likened the Eternal City to New Hampshire during primary season. Only two contenders appeared on both of their tipsheets: Marc Ouellet of Quebec, and Sean O'Malley, the Capuchin friar, who had already been profiled by ABC's David Wright and CBS' Jim Axelrod.
The visiting anchors each filed a pre-race one-on-one: ABC's Sawyer with an actual cardinal, Wilfrid Napier of South Africa, although she did not bother to mention his Christian name; CBS' Pelley with a non-contender, Father Tom Rosica, a Vatican flack. Meanwhile, ABC's Cecilia Vega (at the tail of the Elliott videostream) kept as far away as possible from serious journalism on the conclave, with a feature on the special-effects canisters that color the smoke signals that puff from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
There were four more side features about various aspects of the Catholic Church, from the scandalous (CBS' Mark Phillips on moneylaundering and political bribery by the Vatican bank) to the credulous (ABC's David Wright on the search for miracles by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints). NBC skipped any religious side features. The remaining two were filed by CBS: anchor Pelley with a nervous-looking trio of young American seminarians; and the unlucky Manuel Bojorquez, on the demographics of the church in this country.
Bojorquez was unlucky because he missed out on the junket. His trip, instead, took him all the way to the parish of Saint Athanasius in deepest southern Brooklyn, not in Rome. It turns out that all roads do not lead there, after all.
MONDAY’S MUSINGS Secretary Chuck Hagel, the new boss at the Pentagon, traveled to Kabul. CBS already had Charlie d'Agata based in Afghanistan so he filed a brief stand-up. NBC ran a brief video clip, without assigning a correspondent. As for ABC, Martha Raddatz voiced over four-year-old video of her own trip to Wardak Province from the Washington bureau.
You cannot say that NBC skipped world travel however. Actual travel was offered by Kerry Saunders from an Adelie penguin colony in Antarctica, complete with informative details about the value of glacial ice that turns pink and green. As for imaginary travel, Ann Curry gave a Making a Difference plug to John Butterill's Virtual Photo Walks project on Google Plus.
As for stories about personal health and medicine…
CBS followed up on the 60 Minutes expose of the New England Compounding pharmacy that anchor Scott Pelley publicized last Thursday and Friday. Jim Axelrod fingered another under-regulated compounder, run by Paul Franck in Florida, with a reminder of that string of Venezuelan polo ponies that keeled in Palm Beach over four years ago. Pelley (at the head of the Axelrod videostream), meanwhile, got Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to concede that the Food & Drug Administration lacked jurisdiction.
The in-house physicians at NBC and ABC -- Dr Nancy and Dr Rich -- both offered another plug for daily preventive aspirin.
The supersized soda story was also covered by a correspondent at both NBC and ABC. NBC's Rehema Ellis illustrated how serious the issue is with the factoid that obesity kills 5,000 annually in New York City alone. ABC's Gio Benitez illustrated how silly the controversy is by playing a clip of Jon Stewart making fun of it on The Daily Show. Despite this frivolity, ABC has covered the health consequences of drinking sugary soft drinks as heavily as NBC and CBS combined over the past three years -- and, before that, remember Diane Sawyer's epic on Mountain Dew mouth in Appalachia.
